Mexico

FIRST STAMPS ISSUED 1 August 1856.

CURRENCY

100 centavos = 1 peso.

Mexico was under Spanish rule (Viceroyalty of New Spain) from 1521.
California, New Mexico and Texas were colonized between 1769 and 1786.
Mexico declared independence in 1821 and became a Federal Republic in 1824.
It lost Texas in 1836. The area to the north (now California, New Mexico,
Arizona, Nevada, Utah and part of Colorado) was lost to the USA a few years
later. Since 1853 its international frontiers have remained substantially
unchanged. A brief Anglo-French-Spanish occupation of Vera Cruz in 186 1-2
(from which Britain and Spain soon withdrew) was followed by a French
advance on Mexico City and the puppet empire of Maximilian (1864-67),
overthrown by Juarez.

The usurpation by Huerta of the presidency led to civil war in 1913-15.
'Constitutionalist' forces set up the 'free' state of Sonora (see below) in
opposition in March 1913, reached Mexico City in 1914, and controlled the
whole country by 1917 after minor struggles for power had been resolved with
several interventions by US forces.

Postal History
When Cortez conquered Mexico in 1521, he continued insofar as possible a
system of messengers already well established by the Aztecs. From 1579 the
postal rights were farmed to a succession of noble postmasters (Correo Mayor
de La Nueva Espana). A law suit established that the Mexican posts were not
part of the hereditary monopoly granted to the Galindez de Carvajal family
in the Spanish Indies. The most important early route was between Mexico
City and Vera Cruz. A calculation of distances for postal purposes was made
in 1620.

After the administrator of posts in Madrid had been given a commission in
1742 to improve the Mexican system, a weekly post was established (1745)
between Mexico City and Oaxaca, which made possible a monthly through
communication with Guatemala three years later. In 1765 the Mexican posts
were bought back by the Spanish crown.

Mexico was the pivot of Spanish control in the Americas; it was also the
route for mail coming back from the East Indies. The galleons which carried
intelligence, treasure and mail sailed annually from Acapulco to Manila. The
returning mail was landed again at Acapulco, was carried overland to Vera
Cruz and then returned to Spain via Havana. Earliest letters by this route
have been recorded from 1783.

British packets began a service to Vera Cruz in 1825. British PAs existed at
Vera Cruz 1825-74 and Tampico c. 1840-76. Stamps of Britain were used in
1865-76 at Tampico (oblit. C63), but those supplied to Vera Cruz were never
used. The British Mexican packet ran until 1914.

The French instituted a sailing packet in 1827 between Bordeaux and Vera
Cruz, calling at Martinique and Haiti, which continued not very successfully
until 1835. The Compagnie Generale Transatlantique restored the service in
1862 with a Ligne de Mexique from Saint-Nazaire to Vera Cruz, calling at
Martinique and Santiago de Cuba. The packet-boats were reorganized in 1865,
the Mexican packet becoming Ligne B until 1901, and continuing thereafter
(although without PAs aboard) until 1939.

French consular agencies were established at Vera Cruz (1862-79), Tampico
and Matamoros (1866-7), at which stamps of France were used.

The European packets carried not only Mexican mail to Europe brought down by
mule from Mexico City, but also local mails between Vera Cruz and Tampico.

Initially stamps had to be validated before issue by a named handstamp on
receipt at the district P0; this was to guard against theft of stamps in
transit to postmasters. Stamps without overprint were invalid. From 1864 to
1867 stamps were overprinted in Mexico City with a London GPO invoice number
and year date. From then until 1883, when the practice was discontinued as
the railways started to supersede the vulnerable stage-coach, each main
district was allotted a number which was overprinted on the stamps together
with abbreviated year date.

Provisionals were issued in republican-held territories during the war
against Maximilian 1866-7

Sonora

When the 'Constitutionalist' forces marched on Mexico City in 1914, they
overprinted captured stocks of stamps. A map shows the areas in which local
overprints were used, usually variants of E.C. or E.C. DE M. (Ejercito
Constitucional de Mejico) or GOBIERNO CONSTITUCIONALISTA.